COVID-19: CBD may help reduce lung inflammation in patients, says study

While scientists across the globe search for a vaccine for coronavirus, recent research revealed that Cannabidiol or CBD may help reduce the cytokine storm and excessive lung inflammation that is killing COVID-19 infected patients. While the scientists acknowledged that more work is required, including clinical trials to determine optimal dosage and timing, they also noted that researchers at the Dental College of Georgia and Medical College of Georgia have early evidence CBD could help patients showing signs of respiratory distress avoid extreme interventions like mechanical ventilation as well as death from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Dr Babak Baban, immunologist and interim associate dean for research at DCG and corresponding author of the study in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, in a statement, said, “ARDS is a major killer in severe cases of some respiratory viral infections, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and we have an urgent need for better intervention and treatment strategies”. 

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Co-author Dr Jack Yu, who is a physician-scientists and chief of paediatric plastic surgery at MCG, also added the recent research indicate that pure CBD can help lungs recover from the overwhelming inflammation, or cytokine storm, caused by the deadly virus. He further informed that CDB can restore healthier oxygen levels in the body. 

Cannabis calms inflammatory response 

As per the study, Baban and Yu took advantage of the large, unique genetic structure of the novel coronavirus. Their model produced classic symptoms of ARDS like the overwhelming and destructive immune response and then they found that CBD significantly down-regulated classic indicators of the excess, like inflammation-promoting cytokines as it improved oxygen levels in the blood and enables the lungs to recover from eh structural damage.  

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While pealing how cannabis calmed the inflammatory response, Baban said that when the infection starts the doctors need to immune system to clear the virus. He further explained that in the second part, the doctors will need to down-regulate it, not stop it but bring down the power of the inflammatory responses. Yu said that the body is fighting the infection inside the lungs but that response cases damage of its own, then triggers more of a response that becomes ‘self-magnifying’. 

Baban said, “Working in mice, the AU researchers were able to recreate the severe lung condition and then give them CBD to help block that response and improve lung function and block some dangerous clotting. They also have 'very strong data' that it directly blocks a factor that helps promote inflammation”. 

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